Research Impact
The depth and breadth of our research impact is exemplified by the case studies below, which illustrate how we strive to commercialise our work, often via collaboration with industrial partners, in order to ensure maximum reach and benefit.
The QUILL research centre within the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering was the first research centre to focus on the development of ionic liquids (liquid salts) and their applications in green chemistry. It carries out fundamental studies on the design and performance of ionic liquids, as well as their application in industrial processes.
The centre has a strong background in understanding structure-property relationships in ionic liquids from a fundamental perspective which forms the basis for controlling and exploiting them. This expertise has allowed entirely new ionic liquid-based approaches to remove mercury from natural gas and condensate supplies to be developed. This is a considerable challenge since it requires complex mixtures of inorganic, organic, and elemental forms of mercury to be extracted from natural gas and liquid hydrocarbon streams on an industrial scale, and must be sufficiently rapid to protect down-stream facilities from spikes in mercury content.
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Alkylate gasoline is the cleanest and most efficient gasoline blending component (low emissions, high octane number). As far as fossil fuels go, it is both green and economically attractive, with >500 alkylation plants worldwide. The main drawback of the two established technologies for alkylate gasoline production are the catalysts they use: hydrofluoric acid (HF) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4). HF is a poisonous liquid with very high vapor pressure, easy to recycle but requiring multiple costly handling precautions. H2SO4 is a non-volatile liquid, but its recycling is an energy-demanding, large-scale operation producing significant waste streams.
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C. difficile (C. diff) infections are a major problem; in 2015-16 in the UK alone, there were 5,200 cases in hospitals and more than 14,000 in primary care institutions. It is estimated that there are more than 1,000,000 cases in the US and Europe each year. This anaerobic bacterium usually affects patients with pneumonia or cancer who have been treated with broad spectrum antibiotics (especially cephalosporins) which have destroyed their natural gut flora. Although there are two drugs (metronidazole and vancomycin) that are currently partially effective, C. diff infections still cause >30,000 deaths annually in the USA and >10,000 in Western Europe each year. The economic cost of C. diff infection is significant, with one study estimating annual acute care costs at USD4,800,000,000 in the USA. New therapies are thus desperately needed.
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